GRC

Quick update this time as I had intended to spend the month working on Sturminster Halt but an invite to the N Gauge Forum Meet up at Riddlesdown near Croydon, Surrey prompted me to get some of the jobs done that I had been putting off for a while. The N gauge meet up should be good and some good layouts attending including Banbury and Horseblock lane, Both modern Image :-) and of course Kanjiyama from my friend Claude who has just built himself a new website which i'm very tempted to follow his lead on as I helped Mrs G set up her site on this very software. http://kanjiyama.moonfruit.com/# Riddlesdown Meet up:- http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=17224.0 Horseblock Lane:- http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=14461.msg143874#msg143874 Banbury:- http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;area=pictures;u=990;view=52 My Picture of Banbury below with the MPV's in attendance. This was my desk this morning, making cones, Piles of stacked bags on pallets and drop bags for gravel and sand etc. These are for Burdens yard and the spares will probably be abandoned by the side of the tracks as per the prototype. The cones are made from the ends of Cocktail sticks, been using the sticks for pipes and then realised that alhough large the tips would make good cones. The gravel sacks are made from modellers clay , baked in the oven and the stacks from Foamboard stacked on cardboard pallets. Been trying to wrap these in plastic but thats not going very well and may have to be abandoned. Cling Film is to clear and thin to look like its supposed to and the thicker plastics are difficult to manage and fit. Still I will persevere this week. The yard in Burdens is now filling up and I'm quite pleased with the result. The pipes are all different colours which provides an interesting look compared to the rest of the layout. With the cars now in the background this is filling up nicely. I spent some time working on the Aggregate recyling building. I've added the yellow posts, guttering and the conveyors across the to the loading bin. Very pleased with the way this has worked out and looks. The board gap looks horrid in this picture and will remedy that this week. May have to do some more detailing work in this area but will wait now until I complete the front building in the future. The other big job which seems to have taken longer than it should have done is the addition of the remaining 3rd rail to the rest of the mainline tracks. I'd completed 1/4 before Xmas but finishing has proved harder than I remember. Not sure if its the glue, process or ballast. Still I'm getting there now and it should all be finished for next week . The 3rd rail is Peco Code 60, thanks to Brian at Morris Models (http://www.morris-models.co.uk/ ) for reminding me what I bought for the pilot area. I used the Woodland Scenic line pens for painting the sides which is very effective but not that visible when looking from above.

Great guide with some good tips, thanks Lisa

Had a productive Christmas on the modelling front and a busy start to the year with an early club Saturday running which provided the impetus to get some work done and get the module test passed. That was successful so I am now officially allowed to exhibit with the first date penciled in for the Bluebell railway show in June. The main improvement is the ballasting on the main line, this vastly improves the look and moves the layout on from a work in progress to super detailing. I've added track workers in the space between the line and the yard which I think really start to show the scale. I Included the hedge line and fitted a panel to the front of the layout to protect the mainlines at shows and stop anything falling off. The hedge line is a mix of Woodland scenic bushes interspersed with some home made( Wire wool) bushes covered in green and pink scatter. I've also added workers to the cement works and the aggregate yards. Don't have enough with helmets and High Vis clothing so may need some additional ones over time. The pictures don't show the full dressing (Cars, Excavators, Cement mixers) I think i mentioned that i was considering using Tacky Wax for these. Think thats not going to work and will leave a lot of residue and catch dust so will be gluing them in with super glue I think once the car parking areas are finished from a detailing perspective. The Cement yard is now pretty much done. Little bit of work to the fencing and boundaries but its all stuck down, need to add some more rubbish and weeds around the building edges so thats one job off the list. Been working on repainting the burdens yard building and adding some signage and also filling the yard. Need a lot more "stuff" for the yard and the signs may need replacing on the building as the weathering on the roof may have toned them down too much. Less is definitely the way to go with weathering modern stuff, getting the balance right between mint and weathered is hard and seems to vary vastly for a range of different reasons. Posted a few pictures here and a few more on the FlickR site http://www.flickr.com/photos/94738636@N05/12048797495/lightbox/

And just to sew some more confusion this is a picture of the aerial picture which I think is in the Gardens so excuse the scratches of Stur in the early part of the 20th Century.

Thanks all for your help, Especially Tim, some great photos and the one looking back into the yard from the southerly end is great. I can now redo the back of the layout. I'm very pleased with my track layout, think I have it just about right based on this :-) The Cattle yard end needs remodeling, I'm not happy with the road and getting the angle right is not easy and of course the hill drops away there quite fast so not ideal for modelling on the backscene Ben not sure if it was yours but i did follow another Sturminster layout on here, being built in Australia i think and used the station models as a framework, still not sure I have the station building right but as I get better at modelling I may go back and redo. This was the first time i realised the cattle dock wasnt oblong shaped so was able to use that and looking at Tim's photo that looks good too. Been to the museum, they don't have many great pictures on display and the model is not as per the prototype but provides some useful indicators. I think my last port of call will have to be the library service but will wait until i have some time to be in Dorset to do that. Thanks Again everyone :-) PS attached a couple of pics of the model in the museum for anyone who hasnt seen it Will recreate Tim's pictures when i do the refurb on it but in the meantime as close as I have to that northerly looking view into the yard. Don't look at the signal box roof :-)

Looking for some help please. I want to do a refresh of my Sturminster Newton layout in N gauge and two of the areas that I wasn't happy with (of many) on the original were the cattle yard as viewed from the yard entrance and the back of the yard which for the model is the backscene. I've attached a couple of pics for reference. Any one able to point me at any photo's of these areas greatly appreciated. I think anything from the 40,s to the line closing will give me some ideas. I have seen some indications and models with a dairy but no pictures. Thanks Gavin.. Ps will also change from a generic backscene for the refresh what's behind Blandford &webb and down the backscene to where I have the coal merchants at the moment?

Hi Jeremy, the building looks really good, Assume you will varnish before and after using weathering powders? Will you use anything special or just some standard varnish like Railmatch? Thanks Gavin..

Interesting looking at the photo's. Can see a lot more detail on them than I can by looking at the model. Will have to do some tidying up of each building and area as I reinstall on the layout. Guess I should also varnish as well to protect the card from the elements. Do people use spray varnish for cardboard buildings ?

Competition over and so back to work on the layout. Here are the buildings stripped back off the model and back in place on the layout. I spent far too many hours doing work on the wiring following the module test, Some of this is now completed but I had the board on its side to do so have all the vehicles and stock off the layout at the moment, makes it seem very barren. Now having a couple of niggles with some points so no stock back until that's sorted. My plan did work and I was able to successfully remove the models base from the shelf very cleanly and install straight onto the layout. The Tacky Wax worked very well on keeping the models attached whist taking the cement yard by itself to the competition and back so very pleased, Will use this later on to attach all the vehicles and people (hopefully a Xmas present) so they can be moved from time to time. The wax does leave a residue but this can be cleaned, at least after a few days. Not sure I managed to get photo's of the cement works as it went to the competition, some were taken so will see if I can get a couple for later posting. The Cement yard is now back on the layout in its final position, not yet stuck down as there is some tweaking and modifying of the area where the new base covers the old. I've inserted some card and infilled with putty to smooth off but this needs spraying now before the final building attachment. The hedge line along the front of the yard needs extending back towards the camera and the hopper discharge control building needs sticking down and the gaps closed once that bit is sprayed. This picture gives a good view of the frontage and the fence, pleased with the way this looks now, The airbrushing on the gantry may be a bit more than the prototype but I think it looks better. Although the prototype looks white from the ground I think it will/should be dirtier looking down and I think the effect looks good. In the next picture You can see the work needed on the concrete apron where the model base joined the layout base. Can also see some of the signs and the changes I made to the platform shape to better fill the space and deal with the foreshortening of the site. At the front you can see a new foam former for a sandpile just to the right of the weighbridge. Still need to get rid of the screw in the backscene. Still not sure on if it will be a sign or part of a container or both. I'm quite pleased with how the signage has come out and have attached some pics of the buildings below. For the majority of the signs I used photo paper with compressed images using Powerpoint to manage and get the right size. Bit of trial and error but the effect looks good. The signs and images came from the Internet and its pretty easy to find, copy and paste to use. Used a lot of conventional signs for health and safety and parking etc. Lots more of these to do over the next few weeks. Used Crafty Computer paper for the Cemex signs on the towers, Again followed the instructions and very pleased withe the results Next post over the xmas period still lots of work to do on this and it will be a year since I started work on the layout. Seems to have been quite slow at times but I feel i'm making reasonable progress. Now have to get on with the next conveyor for the aggregates building but feeling more confident now having built the first one Happy Xmas everyone G

The scale scenes ones aren't bad and they come in N which is great, used a mix on here of card and ready to plant depending on location and colouring needed.

Couple of photo's to show some progress on the cement yard. Some final photo's to take tomorrow and then its break up time to put the model on the layout. back outside into the garden as the light is so much better. Used the airbrush to smooth the concrete and add some depth and colour to the framework. Everything is now stuck down with stickywax for the show tomorrow. Still to add, Signs and transfers, trees for the front and some brushwork to tidy up some of the paint work. First time I've really used the airbrush and very pleased with the results so far.

The picture below represents the starting point for the next phase which includes finishing off the conveyor systems and the buildings and starting work on the scenics as well as the excavation for the conveyor pits. I used the theme board as a back which sets the model off nicely but the light reflecting is something to look at next time. The picture below shows the problem with conveyor 3 going into the drying tower where I didnt get the angles quite right. Just going to do some adjustment now to the length of the conveyor as I dont want the drying tower much closer to the northern boundary which is already installed on the layout. The plastruct has worked well and the bit bashing for the conveyor head I think looks alright. so pleased with the look. Final Adjustments next and glue together. The northern and eastern boundarys are shown in the next 3 shots which is effectively an angled scalsecenes warehouse screened by fencing and a hedge line. The reason for showing these is that one of the next jobs will be the hedge line along the front which needs to blend into the existing scenery when the model is installed on the layout although that wont be until the model has its show. Not sure how the model will look with that boundary missing on it but I cant show the whole layout so it will just have to look like a model for the moment with no back or sides. I have installed some track which you can see in the next shots along the front and sides, I think a couple of wagons will set the scene off nicely so worth doing. Unfortunately my RMC Hopper wagons won't be ready as I wont have time before the show to get these done. (The weather forecast for the weekend though is interesting, maybe there may be some time instead of leaf clearing in the garden ?) The track was stuck down onto a bed of PVA and then gaugemaster grey ballast sprinkled over the top. In the final pictures I've not checked what has and hasn't stuck yet, If it looks like a lot then I may use a dilute PVA mix to finsih it off. Not sure yet as it only needs to last for one evening. Been putting off building two of the smaller buildings on site for ages, completed these now using scalescenes brick paper, Cereal box card for the structures and some card for the flat roofs, Not entirely happy but need to see how these look in the overall scheme. You can see these in situ in the photo below I have installed the doors, windows and the rails for the control building, Scalescenes doors, Black painted plastic for the windows (paint inside) and some plastruct around as frames. As before the pastruct was very easy to work with. using standard Humbrol precision poly glue and its fine. ( No direct pictures of this so will be shown in next installment) Started work on the scenics as I wanted to get the sand piles and hedge/Fence line in place before final fitting of the buildings. Used mixture of woodland scenics olive and light green foliage, Grass mix and had a go with my WWS grass master (not very successfully) but this has created a reasonable hedge, fence line, The Fence needs posts which I'll add later but is using sanded clear plastic as per Nigel Burkin in BRM? This will have trees, I'm going to make my own for this section from wire as the majority are Silver birch's which have just taken root and are growing straight up. Will use Woodland scenics foliage though to retain consistency with the rest of the layout (job for the weekend) The sand piles are just the foamboard covered in PVA and sprinkled with different materials to give some variety. These will probably need another coat to finish them off. The first and last pictures represent work to date, Took the photo's in the garden which is a massive improvement in quality and colour. As ive said before once the layout is complete then I will set up outside in the summer to get some really good shots. Helps using the camera and not the Iphone but does go to show how important good light is.

Started working now on the Cement works, I’d been buying bits and pieces of slaters plasticard for this purpose over the last few months and as you can see from the photo below I had some ideas about how it was all going to fit together and I’d had the buildings made but not detailed and fitted for some time. The first thing that had to go was the polystyrene formed mounds under the conveyor, they didn’t look quite right to my eyes and I decided to replace them with foam board mounds like the rest of the yard. Cutting the polystyrene out was a little challenging as I didn’t want to have to remake the Conveyor frame and apart from a few challenges came away fairly cleanly, had to file some down and the rest will be covered with sand and paint anyway. I re-examined the prototype and decided to extend the frame to give it a little more length on both ends. Wanted the join hidden by the hopper so some juggling done. I made the hopper from styrene sheet and pasticard box and Girder sections. First time I have used these and very impressed at how well these go together and stick. I had some concerns based on modelling plastic kits in my younger years but this was great. Secure in 30 Seconds or so and still movable for a few minutes for adjustments if needed. The hopper hides the join and provides the support for the extension. At the moment this is just balanced on the beams as I want to paint and do the sand piles before connecting together. I managed to get a bit carried away doing this and so pleased with this stage I may have rashly decided to enter this at the local Model Railway Club modelling completion in December. To facilitate this I needed to provide a new base for temporary use and so have acquired an old shelf and cut some foamboard for depth and then a new concrete apron from thick card as the base. I’m hoping that I can lift the model on the card and drop the whole lot into the layout as one piece. Time will tell on this. What I will do is make sure that everything that may need to be removed can be relatively easy in case. Made up a mixture of green, white, black and brown for the concrete base painted over a grid pattern for the concrete. I’ll dry brush this a little once the buildings are down to lighten up and bit and then have a play with the spray gun to tone the base down. Once the base was down my attention returned to the two large buildings, These are joined at the top and from the bottom so spent some time looking at this and figuring out how to join. One of the areas I had neglected was the roof on the control room. I decided to add some foamboard as the roof and cut this to shape and installed. This made the building look to short so ended up adding a longer piece for the tank and joining to the cement storage tower slightly lower down that the prototype. I used a drill and knife then filed out the gaps for the connectors which are Plasticard square tubes. For the roof of the drying tower (At least I think this is what it is) I built the conveyor mounting with plasticard, some more tubes and railings. Added a cut down ratio junction box for the conveyor controls. The Conveyors themselves have got me thinking the most. The compromise I have come up with is to use the diameter of the tubing which sits in the hoppers. This gives a scale width of around 5 feet which I think is ok but looks very narrow when viewed from above. I’m going to use thin cheap magazine paper for the belt and have some brass rodding for the rollers. I’ve built a walkway down the length of the conveyor and used some clear plastic sanded into a mesh pattern (same as the fences) I’ll drybrush this white and then clean off to give the impression of a grid. Will have to fit the guard rail after painting I think. I’ve dug the first hole for the conveyor feeds from the rail head and used some Ancortons fencing here in the ground to show the inspection pit. Next jobs will be to put a low barrier around these and put some fencing in. Still lots of jobs to do on this so next installment on these soon.

Thanks Ben, Certainly planned to paint the insides and fill so they are not running empty. Thanks for the Halfords grey primer idea, not thought about using that and it would be a good way of preparing the insides. Mot made as much progress on these, the brass fittings are very fiddly and taking a lot longer than expected.

Not posted for a while as I've been preparing for the first outing of Crawley Yard to the club so that the initial checks could be completed with the wiring, construction, alignment and get some feedback on the build, scenics and operation. I'd chosen this weekend as there was a Saturday running morning as well which meant I could set up on the Friday and tear down on the Saturday. I finally finished the covers on Friday afternoon, I'd wanted them painted so that when the layout is in storage in the Garage its well protected but this took longer to dry than expected so late Friday afternoon I was rushing to get these completed. Bit of a fiddle fitting them at home as my fixed base in the railway room doesn't allow them to be fixed in situ but the installation once on their legs was fine with no problems both their and back. As feared both boards don't quite fit in one of our cars but this was anticipated and a challenge for 2014. I spent the latter part of the week double checking the wiring, making sure everything was working and found a problem that I had neglected to fix earlier with track 4. That fixed off we went to the club. Setting up went fine, had the boards up and in position within 15 mins of arriving, out the car, fitted legs and placed in position covers off and ready to go. What I didnt do was look at the alignment of the two boards properly, now I have 3 alignment pins fitted (metal) but at home bolt the 2 sections together, without the bolts the boards managed to get a bit out of line so thats the first job to reassess. Back home and bolted they are fine again so thats going to mean setting up on their show legs if I can find the space. I'd built the baseboards to not have the 4 running lines included and so these are on a separate baseboard, although this is bolted to the main board it has dropped slightly at the front so going to have to revist that as well as getting the connectors on both ends took longer than expected on the night. I'd taken some connectors (3 inch Code 75) joiners but should have done some more work on these at home, most needed reducing or extending and I didnt have 6 (Must add to show list and make around 12) and needed more sleepers removing to make fitting the fish plates easier. I should also have checked fitting these as some paint and ballast needed to be cleaned off of the rails. Running on the main lines took a while to get right, I hadn't tested with old stock (deep wheel flanges) on finescale track and some solder and ballast needed to be cleared off, I filed a bit on the night but will redo the soldering before the next show on the board join fitting screws. Track 3 was a bit of a disaster, getting the joiners on and ready made me late setting up the controller and I made a big mistake here. I'd set up two plans, one for operating from the side that presents the mimic diagram as if you in front and one for operating from the rear that shows you if standing behind. I hadn't remembered to test this before and it caused me a couple of issues and along with a wiring problem on track 3 prevented that from being used. Very disappointing for me and prevented other people from running so frustrating for them as well. What were the issues, well track 3 point switching was from the DCC feed off of track 4 but this was isolated and of course didn't work. As I got more and more stressed I failed to work out why this wasn't working and although the default position should have been straight through I hadn't reversed the polarity on the rear facing plan so it had set switched and then as I'd isolated track 4 wouldn't change. I've fixed this now and put a feed in so the control is off the main DCC bus and the frog fed from the tracks so the point will always work regardless of the isolating section. The other problem appears to be crossed pair but I'm back at home, have tested and can't find it yet so that needs some more work. What I will do is insert a switch before the isolating switches that will feed DC power to track 3 for club running I'll also look at a section break for controlling via DC on track 3. It was suggested that I could use track 4 for storage but I need to consider if a reversing shunting movement is doable or if I should add another feed from track 3 into track 4 to make an effective passing loop of 4 if required. As I haven't ballasted the front tracks yet this is all possible. The electrical problems kept me busy and meant that I didn't get around to running any of my trains or engaging with as many people as I would have liked. A number of people recognised the location which was great and I had some suggestions on weathering and finishing off some of the scenics which was great as well as some kind words on the buildings and look and feel of the location so taking a few weeks off now whilst i recover and then back on track. As people said on the night its why modules need to be tested before exhibitions and I've learnt a lot from the experience but its not a stress free process. Were all back home now and running. I've dressed the layout with the 50+ cars, yard vehicles and put some wagons in the sidings and added some pictures to the blog and FlickR. Next jobs - feedback from clubnight summarised below and finishing off the scenery across the layout. Longer list for the next post. Jobs to Do - From clubnight 1. Check board joining alignment dowels, consider replacing or using bolts for shows 2. Check Front boards for drop and analyse remedial works. 3. Produce more joiners, modify, paint and add to show list 4, Check soldering and make sure nothing on the inner rails above sleeper height. 5. Recheck track 3 and 4 wiring, Insert DC control option for power 6. Check Rear facing Mimic diagram and route set ups 7. Review options for DC control on track 3 8. Consider additional points to make track 4 a passing loop. 9. Move the modular connector choc boxes off the end boards

Not made as much progress as I would have liked over the last week or so especially with the test coming up but managed to complete some jobs. In Burdens yard i've now fixed the fences both at the back of the yard towards the backscene buildings and right at the front paralell with the track, For this I've used one of the wire fencing packs from Ancortons. This was cut to size and then attached to the fence posts, not very easy and not sure how I would do this the next time but it looks ok in the picture. At the back I've used transparent plastic sanded to a cross cut as per Nigel Burkin in BRM. As I had a lot of fencing on the layout this has been very cost effective (free) and although now I want to go back and add some posts where its more obvious a lot of the fences are buried in the trees and hedgelines so the posts are not obvious. Found some cheaper cars on Ebay so now have enough to populate the main car parks. Too many Silver and blacks and some massive sunroofs for the UK but can deal with those over time. Ive added some of the new ratio lineside cabinets, had a look at these in the photos and more impressed than I can actually see from the normal viewing position. They maybe a little dark and will drybrush with a little light gray i think once I get into the painting phase. One problem I am finding as the photo's get to be closer up is the loss of focus in the depth of the shot, Have seen some comments on this elsewhere and I will need to think about how I improve the shots but as i'm only taking shots at the moment to track progress I think any serious photography will have to wait until until Mrs GRC can help me as she actually knows how. I know I could crop and I could also not reduce the file size but that will take me away from the modelling. What the photo's do show is where the scenic areas need more work. The ballast isn't finished and looks very gappy. The base board joints I can see need more work but the photo's are very cruel. From where I stand the pile of rubble in front of the disused buildings looks ok but close up is very out of scale so will have to go. Digital photography is great for this work in progress assessments it shows up all the issues and challenges but is not kind. I've started the scenery on the yard areas in front of the aggregates building and in the main aggregate yard. I'd been collecting materials for some time to give different textures and the look and I'm quite pleased with the results. The difference has really bought the layout to life and Im very pleased. Has also given me some ideas on the back-scene which I was struggling with in a couple of areas so will be making two additional buildings, The guardroom and the garage as seen in the survey. These will be low relief and at around 60 degrees to the back so going to be an interesting build. View up the Aggregates yard between the sidings Finally this week I've done a bit of painting to some of the plant vehicles and started work on an additional rake of RMC Hoppers builf from N Gauge Society kits. Have a great video of this set in Crawley Yard in August so looking forward to the weathering on these and creating the look. I'll post the video and some of the still captures on FlickR over the next few days. Have a rake of 11 to build so going to take me some time to get them completed.

Great tip, thanks

Couple of tips 1. 9v battery with two wires will drive a cobalt, great for testing as you fix and general faulfinding. You can buy battery caps from rs with the fly leads attached. 2. Set the controller addresses and test before fitting, I recall now that some of mine took a. Couple of attempts to learn theirs and if you forget to put the switch back you can change it accidentally.

WSNG use the following Plugs and Sockets from RS Components Chassis Mounting Shell 12 way Type B 466-755 "" "" Type A 466-747 Inserts Sockets 468-557 Inserts Plugs 468 -541 Heavy duty and massively overengineered for the purpose but very robust and easy to use.

Easy one first, On each cobalt I added the single controller, these fit in the slot and I've used a sellotape sticky pad to fix them once they have been tested. Two wires to the power bus, two to the actual cobalt. I use frog switching for the front of layout to avoid the blades being the electrical contacts and connect the cobalt to the bus as well, Could have daisy chained but went back to the chock blocks for convenience. Make sure that you set the controller addresses up first if possible as the switch can be difficult to get too once the controller is mounted. In RM I just used one of the generic single port controllers set up the address and that's it. I have an Elite which sits just behind the PC but don't think the new eLink is any different. You can use the polarity switching in RM and also set the opening position which resets all the points when the software starts, very nice if your used to a handheld which doesn't have that facility. If I haven't answered your question please ask again. PS You can test the controllers are set up correctly with any DCC controller including the elite without RM just to isolate the issue.

Thanks, think the photo's make it look both better and worse. Need to finish the job and get the layout outside to get some decent photo's. Just for Info I'm using a puffer bottle for the grass and bits of flock from the trees along with some bushes from woodland scenic. Usual mix of PVA and water for the glue.

Managed to get some modelling done today on the Aggregate recycling Facility. The basic building consists of 3 major parts, the Main Building, the back section and the tanks as shown in the picture above. I'd made the basic buildings a while ago to get the size and fit along with the positioning established but had to make a couple of changes to get the building to look right and deal with the backscene. The buildings themselves are made from cereal box card, to get the feeling of the corrugation, not that obvious in the prototype pictures I've drawn on lines with a hard pencil. I've then painted over the top with some very thing green paint and rubbed off where I used too thick paint In the prototype the wagon loading facility is at right angles but there isnt the depth on the layout for this so I've changed the angle to fit the back of the loading bay aligned with the backscene. The loading part is around 10mm deep and mounted of Foamboard to keep it light and give it something to attach to the base. As the building crosses the join between two boards the buildings will be mounted on their own base so they can be carried separately and added to the layout when its set up. The chimney is also taller than the backscene so another reason to travel as a standalone module. The storage tanks are made from plastic tubing and the pipework from brass rod. Still need to paint these as they are only primed at the moment. The final grouping includes the loading bay and eventually the conveyor, that will come later in the fine detailing phase but the hole in the buildings are already there. Final Job of the day was to prime the multicoloured Cement mixers from Kato and Tomix (I think) ready for rebranding

Certainly the WSNG modules will have all of those combinations. One of the reasons I went for 2 modules or 8 feet is to reduce this effect down. I've seen a US modular layout where the buildings and ballast are standardised. That worked very well. I did see some discussion about an Somerset and Dorset modular layout and I'd like to do something like that in the future.

This weekend managed to get a lot of little bits done over the layout and working towards the main buildings which are the most complicated to do. I've done some more ballasting which can be seen on these pictures. I used a mixture of ballast and finished off with a blast on the puffer bottle to this area as the yard doesn't appear to be weed treated. One of the decisions I've had to make is where to change the ballast colouring between the Yard and the Main Line, The Main Line is brown and is this colour pretty much all the way to London from here. The Main line ballast is very messy though. None of the smooth lines well laid stuff here. The machines seem to create a shoulder and where its removed and replaced the colouring can be all over the place. Also where repairs have been done the colouring can be very random. In the picture below you can see how I've blended the colours. Also you can see the trunking and the lineside boxes. Will paint these once I get on with the weathering. May add more trunking on the south boards, in places there are up to 3 parallel runs. I've used some of the new Ratio trunking as well as some wall capping stones from a Metcalfe kit, both seem to look ok. One of the jobs which you cant see in the pictures was some remedial work to the Fiddle Yard. There are 5 roads serviced from 2 " 3 Way Peco Points and a standard point. The track was laid across the board joins and then soldered to screw heads Somehow these seem to have managed to get slightly out of alignment so the soldering Iron has been out and I've tweaked them all again so I could do some test running. All 6 roads are now operational so I spent some more time today on completing some loads for the wagon loads as well as moving on with the landscaping for the aggregate unloading area. I used a selection of ballasts, sand, dust and limestones both for the loads and for the aggregate area. Good Weekend had. Realised I had made a mistake in the setup of Railmaster so have that resolved now. All of the points are working even after ballasting. The routes through the fiddleyards are all working. The routes allow the end to end road through the fiddleyard to be set with one operation. So with all that done, I've loaded up the stock and managed to get some trains running in time to post this blog.

One of the key Aspects of building a module is that it needs to pass a Module Operating Test (MOT) and following a quick discussion I had at the club it was recommended to me that I do this in two phases, phase 1 before ballasting and scenery detailing and phase 2 once the scenery and importantly the ballasting is done. Having realised this that has set my plans back a little and a slight change of focus. I hadn't though too much about transport and when I was going to get the testing done but the recent move of the clubs Saturday running morning (after the Friday night session) from October to November provides the perfect opportunity to get that first phase testing done, All I need to do is get the running right, tweak the tracks, make sure all the electrics work and get them to the clubroom. Sounds easy when said like that. So I have a deadline, need to get as much down now as possible on the main scenics less the ballasting before then :-) So I took full advantage of the great weather we had over the weekend to get the boards out of the railway room and into te garage for the build and fitting of covers. These need to be around 12 Inches high at the ends and slightly shorter on the sides. I probably should have made the covers before starting on the layout but the excitement of getting started and running trains is too strong, Also in doing the covers in this order I've been able to tweak the fitting to cover a lip at the back and left a space at the front as I dont yet know what I'm going to do there. So some photo's of the covers being made. Went for 6 mm MDF for the ends and 3mm for the top and sides with a batten frame to join it all together In the first photo you can see I've attached the ends to the boards to make sure I get a good fit and that the ends are drilled out for the alignment dowels and will be bolted using M6 Bolts to the boards. The other photo's show the ends and the completed box Final job on these now is to attach handles to the tops so they are easier to get in and out of the car and carry around. Just some rope and handles I think and paint the covers so they are not such dust magnets over the layout. May even be smarter as well